The Nintendo Switch 2 Has Big Shoes to Fill for The Legend of Zelda

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 5, 2024 22 Views 6 Min Read
The Nintendo Switch 2 Has Big Shoes to Fill for The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda has always been an iconic gaming franchise—that much should be clear to anyone with even a passing interest in the industry. But while it’s been far more consistent in terms of quality and success compared to other long-running series, it’s still had its high and low points. The Nintendo Switch era, now reaching its end, has been an undeniable high point.




Such success has only visited The Legend of Zelda franchise on a few different consoles. The GameCube, for example, was the home of both Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, not to mention solid ports of Ocarina of Time and Majora ‘s Mask. By comparison, the Wii U saw something of a drought for the franchise, with the only new, non-remastered Zelda releases being Hyrule Warriors and Breath of the Wild. However, BOTW would go on to be more definitive of the Nintendo Switch, with many not even aware that it’s a cross-platform release. After Breath of the Wild came Tears of the Kingdom, and after that, Echoes of Wisdom and, combined with the well-received Link’s Awakening remake, these games have come together to form one of the strongest lineups of Zelda games on a single console. Indeed, this assortment of releases is a tough act to follow.

Nintendo Switch with Zelda Echoes of Wisdom Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom

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Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom Redefined Zelda, and Open-World Design as a Whole

There are certain Zelda games, such as Skyward Sword, that are seen as great despite their issues. Even something like Twilight Princess, which has a far more dedicated following than Skyward Sword, isn’t generally thought of as a revolutionary or innovative release, at least when it comes to major design pillars. It’s far rarer, naturally, for a Zelda game to reinvent not just the franchise’s identity, but the world of action-adventure games at large.

Breath of the Wild did precisely that. It’s “open-air” world design philosophy and open-ended narrative structure make it a singularly liberating gaming experience, where discovery is endlessly, intrinsically rewarding, not just a tool for progression or gear-grinding. In the years following Breath of the Wild, other open-world games have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to learn from its design tenets, but while these developers were still taking notes, Nintendo sprung forth with Tears of the Kingdom, which would innovate even further. The world design, puzzle design, and structure of this duology makes it the most influential pair of Zelda games since Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.


TOTK and BOTW are the big, shiny flagship games, but Link’s Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom are nothing to scoff at either. For its part, Link’s Awakening is one of the best, most passionately crafted remakes of the last several years, and Echoes of Wisdom builds on its deceptively complex mechanics with wild ideas of its own. These games are nothing if not further evidence of the relentless creativity and ingenuity coming out of Nintendo’s Zelda teams, and they could be just as important as their larger open-world cousins down the road, depending on how Nintendo chooses to handle its 2D Zelda titles.

Thus, the Legend of Zelda series is poised for great success moving forward, but only if it maintains this intense and passionate energy. Rather than resting on its laurels after the Earth-shaking success of BOTW, Nintendo continued to innovate, experiment, and take risks with TOTK. One can only hope that the company retains this philosophy during the era of the Switch 2, striving to not only keep the series’ equilibrium, but elevate it with each new entry.


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